I've got a few, and I know Magesmiley was in on that action too. I can't post until tonight though, airport wifi is barely cooperating.

I don't feel qualified to speak to"what car wars should be" since I have been at it since the 80s and don't have a mountain of splat books...but from what I knew going in its everything I wanted 6E to be. I had the fundamentals by the end of the first turn, and was able to help coach other players by turn 3. We got a late start, got through the intro blurb, spent a good deal of time chatting/bugging Jimmy/Randy, and were still able to complete a 4 player duel by the time the 2-hour block ended. Tha said we did use prebuilt div15 cars,car creation gameare reserved for Sunday (today).I have a bunch more thoughts on it,

but my flight is boarding in the next few minutes so I gotta get going.

Magesmiley

04-07-2019 06:41 AM

Re: FnordCon Update

It's going to work. The rules and play work as a game and the learning curve is a lot easier. I think that the feel of Car Wars is there too. It isn't as much of a simulation as Classic, which has both good and bad points, but I think the right compromises were made from what I can see.

If you've played Classic, you will have a bit of an edge over others, at least initially, as you're more familiar with thinking ahead on how to position your vehicle to get the most from your firing arcs.

I have some quibbles over places here and there (one big one which can be addressed later), but most of these are smaller items rather than overall game play.

I did play one game where we designed cars, plus two others using the starter setup, and observed one more. For that designed game (my fourth), I understood the rules well enough to help other players and we didn't really need the refs.

I did record a couple of full games before running into battery issues and will see about getting them shared.

More later when I've got a real keyboard and have mulled things over some more.

Dolph

04-07-2019 05:36 PM

Re: FnordCon Update

I can say that I loved it. I played the demo game with the basic cars and two games where we designed our cars. The design process was easy and we got to playing quickly. There are still lots of choices and some people may take longer to pick out the cards for their car.

The gameplay was awesome. It was quick and got even quicker as you got more familiar with the rules. The dice mechanics were simple and easy to follow with all the symbols.

At the beginning of the turn you were given a number of control tokens and as you moved and performed maneuvers you would roll dice and then lose control tokens (you also needed the control tokens to do things like putting out fires). Lose all your control tokens and you are the fish in the barrel that everyone else shoots at. Each time you performed a maneuver you would earn a different token that you could then use later to reroll a defensive dice. So in other words the faster you moved and the more you maneuvered the harder you were to hit. The moving template worked seamlessly with the bases which made moving the cars simple and easy.

Shooting was also straight forward. Each weapon card told you the number and type of dice you roll. Compare your successes to the defender’s successes and that lets you know how much damage you did. The dice also had special symbols for doing tire damage or causing fires (some weapons had these special abilities). When weapons breached the armor there was a small deck of cards that you drew from to determine how that damage would get distributed. We really liked this mechanism and always liked making someone draw a card to see how the internals of their car would get damaged.

All of that said the real joy of a game like this is having the “story” feel of what happened during the game. So to give that idea I figured I would share one of the highlights.

In my last battle I was lining up on one opponent from behind, while another opponent lined up on my left flank. I managed to do some real damage (and start two fires), but it cost me most of the armor on my left side. I then spent a lot of time trying to maneuver to line up shots while trying to protect my left side. While I did that I kept taking maneuver damage to my tires and was starting to worry that I would lose them. I am pretty sure I would have lost that one if we had been able to finish.

One of the more exciting parts of the game is all the growth potential. It is designed in such a way that it is easy to add new cards and new dice. This factored with the sheer number of expansions mentioned means that this game won’t get stale. I am really looking forward to it.

schoon

04-08-2019 01:45 AM

Re: FnordCon Update

Thank you for the reports, everyone!

It's making me excited about the future of the new edition. Can't wait to give it a go.

philreed

04-08-2019 01:57 AM

Re: FnordCon Update

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dolph
(Post 2253973)

One of the more exciting parts of the game is all the growth potential. It is designed in such a way that it is easy to add new cards and new dice. This factored with the sheer number of expansions mentioned means that this game won’t get stale. I am really looking forward to it.

This is exactly why each of the 36 planned miniatures packs for the Kickstarter campaign includes new cards/gear. Every player's choice when deciding which miniature or two to buy changes up the playing field in some small way.

adm

04-08-2019 08:33 AM

Re: FnordCon Update

Quote:

Originally Posted by schoon
(Post 2254036)

Thank you for the reports, everyone!

It's making me excited about the future of the new edition. Can't wait to give it a go.

I think schoon speaks for many of us.

Quote:

Originally Posted by philreed
(Post 2254037)

This is exactly why each of the 36 planned miniatures packs for the Kickstarter campaign includes new cards/gear. Every player's choice when deciding which miniature or two to buy changes up the playing field in some small way.

Can you tell us the price range for the base game, and what each miniatures pack may cost? ? I realize that this can easily change due to real world changes.

TheAmishStig

04-08-2019 09:31 AM

Re: FnordCon Update

Quote:

Originally Posted by philreed
(Post 2254037)

This is exactly why each of the 36 planned miniatures packs for the Kickstarter campaign includes new cards/gear. Every player's choice when deciding which miniature or two to buy changes up the playing field in some small way.

I came extremely close to a spit-take when I saw that. Not because it's a huge number, but because you wouldn't be able to support that many expansion packs without also having that much new gear lined up...

I'm eager to see what's coming.

DarkPumpkin

04-08-2019 10:27 AM

Re: FnordCon Update

Seems like 6e will be a nice "complementary" game along with Classic...I can't see it as a replacement, but I'll certainly give it a fair shot.